If you want a hit product, choose the product first. Xiaohongshu product selection guide

On the Xiaohongshu platform, where traffic competition is fierce, how to create hot products has become the focus of attention for brands and merchants. The author of this article has summarized five iron laws for product selection through an in-depth analysis of the hot products in multiple categories of Xiaohongshu in 2024, including key factors such as "social currency" attributes, search growth rate, hidden pain points, data verification, and scene emotions.

In 2024, Xiaohongshu's monthly active users will exceed 320 million, but behind the traffic dividend is more intense competition. Data shows that the platform adds more than 1 million new product notes per day, and the hit rate is less than 0.3%.

Xiaohongshu is really not a platform suitable for all products. If new brands want to break through, they need to do a good job in product selection. So what kind of products are suitable for placement on Xiaohongshu?

In order to find the answer to this question, I dug up the TOP1 hot products in 20 categories in 2024 and summarized 5 iron rules for product selection

1. Products with “social currency” attributes

What users show off is not the goods, but their personality and lifestyle

Products with their own "tap water" effect have their own multiplication effect when put on the market

For example, Guanxia Aromatherapy: Buy aromatherapy and get a customized poem waistband for free. When users post pictures, they must include the text "Smells like cherry blossom viewing in Kyoto". The product = a pass to an artistic personality

Babycare baby stroller: high appearance + one-click storage design, mothers post pictures with the same caption "You can go out with your baby decently alone"

Of course, there are also a lot of negative cases on Xiaohongshu

A domestic hair dryer is crazy about promoting "negative ion hair care", but it looks like a hardware store electric drill, and the notes are all "easy to use but don't want to be exposed to the sun"

Function determines whether users buy it, while appearance and sense of ritual determine whether users post it.

2. Products with “Search Growth Rate”

Xiaohongshu has a huge user base of young people who are eager to try new things. It has a strong ability to guide trends. The Xiaohongshu brand can comprehensively and accurately understand and operate the crowd, allowing us to see potential trends and changes in supply and demand in advance.

Through data such as search scale and growth rate, note content supply, etc., drill-down analysis can be performed from different dimensions such as category, ingredient, efficacy, etc., to proactively capture product selection opportunities.

For example, in winter, when the skin is sensitive due to seasonal changes, the search volume for "anti-aging + soothing" skin care products on Xiaohongshu has surged. Backend data shows that the search volume for keywords such as "seasonal redness" and "face mask first aid" has soared by 217% year-on-year, while the supply of notes only covers 30% of the demand. This is an obvious trend signal, and merchants can give priority to choosing such products

Core logic:

Look at the search growth rate, not the absolute value: the monthly increase in the search volume of niche categories is 50% > the monthly increase in the search volume of large categories is 10%;

Deconstructing complex needs: What users want is not "face cream", but the emotional combination of "first aid for sagging face after staying up late + no powder stuck after makeup"

3. Products that can solve "invisible pain points"

Xiaohongshu users are willing to pay a premium for “pain points that have never been met”

For example, the underwear brand "Neiwai" does not make universal models, but specializes in niche needs such as "small breasts look fuller" and "big breasts have no marks", and is still sold out with a customer unit price of over 400.

Pet brand "Zai San": Launched "Cat Litter Box Deodorizing Film" to solve the pain point of "cleaning poop without irritating eyes", and achieved monthly sales of over 10 million with one single product

You will find that none of the "red brands" that have emerged on Xiaohongshu in recent years are standard products. They are all new brands with innovation and propositions, and they are targeting those niche categories that are not seen as inconspicuous and have not been done by big brands.

Big category volume price, small category volume insight, the more inconspicuous the pain point, the greater the premium space

Of course, finding the "invisible pain points" cannot rely solely on subjective judgment. You can use the Focus DMP tool to explore user needs, such as judging by "industry label × deep behavior (collection without ordering)".

4. Products that can be “data verified”

Data verification > subjective judgment

Hot products are "tested" rather than "guessed". You can use spotlight tools and data to verify the product's appeal to users.

Cold start phase: Use the Focus DMP for targeted testing (such as "beauty-interested users × first-tier city women"), publish 10-20 amateur notes, and observe the interaction rate

Hot copy stage: Optimize content format (such as pictures and texts vs. short videos) through "AB testing" to lock in high-conversion templates

It is important to be wary of the "false prosperity" of data: high-like content may come from the influence of influencers, and a comprehensive assessment should be made based on the collection and search volume. If the CTR (click-through rate) during the test period is lower than 1%, it is recommended to adjust the selling point or switch products.

5. Products with built-in “scene emotions”

Users are already immune to “instruction manual” promotions, and hot product content often needs to be embedded in real-life scenarios

For example, a hiking shoe advertisement no longer emphasizes waterproof parameters, but instead shows a parent-child interaction scene of "climbing in the rain without slipping"; "Office Life-Sustaining Coffee" leverages the pain point of "early morning sleepiness" to drive a 130% increase in drip coffee sales

Pain point + solution + emotional sublimation: For example, the maternal and infant product "nursing mother bag": "the embarrassment of working mothers → partition storage design → regain calm and confidence"

If you are worried that multiple articles on the same scene will lead to content homogeneity, you can use multi-format linkage, such as text and picture planting + live broadcast scene demonstration (such as setting up a camping tent) to enhance the user's sense of involvement.

Data shows that the conversion rate of product notes with the topic #独居好物 is 2.3 times higher than that of pure functional descriptions

Remember, what Xiaohongshu users like is not the cold products, but the lifestyle behind the products.